Tag Archives: Dmitri Shostakovich

GarcíaLorcawas a Spanishpoet,dramatist,andmember of theGeneration of ’27, an influentialgroup of poetsthatarose in Spanishliterarycircles in the1920s.HismostfamousworksincludethebookGypsyBalladsandhispoem,“LamentfortheDeath of a Bullfighter.”Thepoetry,passion,andviolence of hisworks,whichcombineSpanishfolklorewithhispersonalexperience,andhisowntragicandbloodydeathbroughthimenduringinternationalacclaim.Howdid he die?More…Discuss

ClassicalMusicTVHDAntonín Leopold Dvořák The Symphony No. 9 in E Minor “From the New World”, Op. 95, B. 178 Conduct Herbert von KarajanFull HD (Czech: Symfonie č. 9 e moll „Z nového světa”), popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular in the modern repertoire. In older literature and recordings this symphony is often indicated as Symphony No. 5.

Accompanied by one of Shostakovitch’s most popular and accessible film-scores, The Gadfly was a highly successful film inside the Soviet Union in its day, a sugary and entertaining costume drama based on a once very popular historical novel by the English writer Ethel Voynich, like a cross between ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel‘. The hero is a swashbuckling revolutionary in Risorgimento Italy and the 1830s/1840s Italian setting gives the composer a chance for delicious pastiches in the style of Bellini and Verdi, as well as pseudo-Neapolitan songs and folk-tunes. Most famous are the catchy Galop and the syrupy Romance, which have been recycled many times in TV shows and advertisements and will quickly appeal to those who prefer their music on the lighter side.

Although Shostakovich is regarded as the greatest Russian composer after Igor Stravinsky, he was denounced multiple times by the authorities and had his work banned during his lifetime. The first denunciation—of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, in which he experimented with avant-garde trends—made a strong impression on him and led him to adopt a very different style that was serious and elegiac, with a directness aimed at the public. What brought him back into Stalin’s good graces? More…Discuss

Shostakovich: Ballet Suite No. 4

The Queer Urban Orchestra, under the direction of Nolan Dresden, performs Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ballet Suite No. 4 at our Mysterium concert, March 20, 2011. The work is in three movements:
I – Introduction and Variations;
II – Waitz; and
III – Scherzo.

The first symphony by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), which he dedicated to his friend Mikhail Kvadri. Shostakovich completed the work at age 19 as his graduation assignment for the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory, which was directed at the time by Alexander Glazunov. Shostakovich’s main composition teacher Maximilian Steinberg oversaw the project. The composer initially wished to use his Scherzo, Op. 7 (1923-24) as the second movement of the symphony, but Steinberg was appalled by its grotesque character and suggested that Shostakovich compose a different movement. He followed his teacher’s advice in composing a new movement, but it was ever more steeped in grotesquerie than the earlier scherzo, and the same brash, brittle character pervades much of the symphony; as Shostakovich wrote to his friend Lev Oborin, “It would be more fitting to call this work the ‘Symphony-Grotesque’.” Although the symphony is vintage Shostakovich, it also bears the influence of earlier Russian masters – from the piquant harmonies of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and the sharp wit of the young Prokofiev to the lush colours and chromaticism of Scriabin and the long-drawn lyricism of Tchaikovsky.

The symphony’s premiere on May 12, 1926 in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic (conducted by Nikolai Malko) was a resounding success. Shostakovich’s mother recalled the performance: “All went more than brilliantly – a splendid orchestra and magnificent execution … At the end, Mitya was called to the stage over and over again. When our handsome young composer appeared, looking almost like a little boy, the enthusiasm turned into one long thunderous ovation.”

The Suite, in its reconstructed form, consists of the following movements:

Scherzo

Lullaby

Serenade

Until recently, another eight-movement Suite by Shostakovich had been misidentified and recorded as the second Jazz Suite. This work is now correctly known as the Suite for Variety Orchestra (post-1956), from which the “Waltz No. 2” was made famous by the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick‘s Eyes Wide Shut, and which now seems irrevocably erroneously associated with the Jazz Suite No. 2.[1][2

Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus (Russian: Генрих Густавович Нейгауз, Genrikh Gustavovič Nejgauz; 12 April [O.S. 31 March] 1888 — October 10, 1964) was a Soviet pianist and pedagogue of German extraction. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. He was made a People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1956. His pedagogic book The Art of Piano Playing (1958) is regarded as one of the most authoritative and most widely used treatments on the subject.He was born in Elisavetgrad (known since 1939 as Kirovohrad), Ukraine. Although both his parents were piano teachers, he was largely self-taught. The biggest influences on his early artistic development came from his cousin Karol Szymanowski (tutored by another relative, Gustav Neuhaus) and especially his uncle Felix Blumenfeld on his visits to his sisters’ home. He also received some lessons from Aleksander Michałowski. In 1902 he gave a recital in Elisavetgrad with the 11-year-old Mischa Elman and in 1904 gave concerts in Dortmund, Bonn, Cologne and Berlin. Subsequently he studied with Leopold Godowsky in Berlin and from 1909 until the outbreak of World War I at his master classes in Vienna Academy of Music.

In 1914 Neuhaus started teaching in Elisavetgrad and later Tbilisi (Tiflis) and Kiev (where he befriended Vladimir Horowitz). After having been temporarily paralyzed, Neuhaus was forced to halt his concert career in the interests of his pedagogical activities. In 1922 he began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory where he was also director between 1935 and 1937. When the Germans approached Moscow in 1942, he was imprisoned as a “German spy” but released eight months later under pressure from Dmitri Shostakovich, Emil Gilels and others. His pupils there included Yakov Zak, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Anatoly Vedernikov, Tikhon Khrennikov, Yevgeny Malinin, Lev Naumov, Tamara Guseva, Ryszard Bakst, Teodor Gutman, Vera Gornostayeva, Alexander Slobodyanik, Leonid Brumberg, Igor Zhukov, Oleg Boshniakovich, Anton Ginsburg, Valeri Kastelsky, Gérard Frémy, Zdeněk Hnát, Rudolf Kehrer, Eliso Virsaladze, Alexei Lubimov, Aleksey Nasedkin, Victor Eresko, Vladimir Krainev, Evgeny Mogilevsky and Radu Lupu.

He died in Moscow in 1964.

Neuhaus was renowned for the poetic magnetism of his playing and for his artistic refinement. He was a life-long friend of Boris Pasternak, and Osip Mandelshtam expressed his admiration for Neuhaus’s playing in a poem. Stanislav Neuhaus, Heinrich’s son by his first wife Zinaida (who married Pasternak in 1931), was also a noted pianist; Stanislav Bunin is his grandson.(Wikipedia)

Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Leon Trotsky‘s chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the Stalinist bureaucracy. In 1936, the government, most probably under orders from Stalin, harshly criticized his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, causing him to withdraw the Fourth Symphony during its rehearsal stages. Shostakovich’s music was officially denounced twice, in 1936 and 1948, and was periodically banned. Nevertheless, he also received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Despite the official controversy, his works were popular and well received.